Cues are what programmers use to play sounds. Cues are typically played when certain game events occur, such as footsteps or gunshots. A cue is composed of one or more sounds, so when the cue is triggered, the set of associated sounds is heard.

A sound specifies how one or more waves should be played. A sound also has specific properties such as volume and pitch. The sound designer can adjust these properties.

The advantage to using the Audio API to reference cues rather than specific sounds is that an audio designer can reassign sounds to a cue in the sound bank without programmer intervention. For example, a sound designer can try various gunshot waves associated with a particular game event without requiring the programmer to change code or rename sounds.

Cues and sounds are referenced through SoundBank objects. The waves that compose a sound are referenced through WaveBank objects.